U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke resigns

by Robert Anglen - Aug. 31, 2011 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

Seven months after controversy erupted over a botched federal gun-running probe, a major shake-up hit Justice Department offices Tuesday that included the resignation of Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke.

The departure of Burke and the reassignments of two others who oversaw Operation Fast and Furious, however, were cast as voluntary rather than disciplinary by the U.S. Department of Justice. The department has been under fire since January as congressional committees investigate the gun-trafficking probe, which put hundreds of weapons in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Lawmakers leading those investigations raised questions about whether the Obama administration made scapegoats of the three officials. They vowed to continue probing who authorized agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to step aside as guns purchased in Valley stores were given to smugglers.

"The Oversight and Government Reform Committee will continue its investigation to ensure that blame isn't offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the committee's chairman. "There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility."

Burke announced that his resignation would be effective immediately because "it is the right time to move on to pursue other aspects of my career and my life and allow the office to move ahead."

His resignation came two weeks after he ended his testimony about Fast and Furious before Issa's committee.

Excerpts of Burke's testimony released by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking committee member, show that Burke took responsibility for mistakes.

"I get to stand up when we have a great case to announce and take all the credit for it regardless of how much work I did on it," Burke said. "So, when our office makes mistakes, I need to take responsibility, and this is a case, as reflected by the work of this investigation, it should not have been done the way it was done, and I want to take responsibility for that, and I'm not falling on a sword or trying to cover for anyone else."

Burke said he was unaware agents were watching people buy guns and not interdicting the purchases.Minutes before Burke sent an e-mail to his staff announcing his resignation, the Justice Department announced that a new acting director - Todd Jones, U.S. attorney in Minnesota - would take over operation of the ATF. Former acting ATF Director Ken Melson was assigned to the Office of Legal Policy as an adviser on forensic science.

The lead prosecutor for Operation Fast and Furious cases in Burke's office was also reassigned Tuesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley was transferred to the civil division in Arizona at his own request, a spokeswoman for Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Issa's office said Burke's resignation does not excuse him from his promise of future testimony.

"The committee still expects him to honor his commitment," committee spokesman Frederick Hill said.

Burke, who took office in 2009, could not be reached for comment. His first assistant prosecutor, Ann Scheel, will serve as acting U.S. attorney for Arizona until a permanent replacement is named.

Questions about Fast and Furious began to emerge in January as members of Congress began pressing ATF officials for answers about the operation. The probe was designed to track small-time gun buyers until the guns reached the hands of major weapons traffickers along the southwestern border.

Instead, ATF agents ended up arresting low-level suspects, and about 1,800 of the weapons were unaccounted for, with nearly two-thirds of those guns likely in Mexico, according to testimony that ATF agents gave to a House committee in June.

Agents also confirmed that two of the weapons connected to the ATF operations were found at the scene of a December gunbattle near Rio Rico that left Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry dead. Terry's murder effectively ended the operation.

On Tuesday, an attorney representing Terry's parents said Burke's resignation does not help answer questions about the gun-trafficking case.

"I don't know that it moves us forward," Phoenix lawyer Patrick McGorder said. "The motivation behind the moves today leaves us with more questions than answers."

McGorder said the family still does not understand the genesis of the operation and who controlled it.

In a news conference with the ATF in January, Burke announced that 700 weapons were seized and 34 people were charged with smuggling guns to Mexico as part of Operation Fast and Furious.

Patrick Cunningham, chief of the criminal division for the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office, who supervised Fast and Furious prosecutions, denied in a recent interview that his office knowingly allowed guns to cross the border.

Cunningham said agents with the ATF, who took the lead in day-to-day operations, repeatedly assured his staff that guns were not being allowed to go to Mexico.

Moreover, Cunningham said, his office gave agents a green light to seize guns every time they requested permission, save one, where it was determined by agents and prosecutors that agents lacked probable cause.

In his letter of resignation to President Barack Obama, Burke made no mention of Fast and Furious.

"My office has made considerable progress during my tenure in prosecuting cases in the areas of border security/immigration, Indian country and white-collar fraud as well as the creation of the first civil-rights unit in the district (of Arizona). We have made unprecedented gains in so many areas," Burke wrote.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder praised Burke's leadership and said his office handled many crucial issues, including the Jan. 8 shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others.

"I am grateful to Dennis for his dedication and service to the Department of Justice over these many years and commend his decision to place the interests of the U.S. Attorney's Office above all else," Holder said in a written statement.

Former state Attorney General Grant Woods said Burke was an exemplary U.S. attorney.

"I think Dennis has had more on his plate in two years than anyone that I can ever remember who assumed a top prosecutorial post," Woods said. "If you go in with nothing unusual, you have a full plate. Then, you add to that the (Jared) Loughner case, the county-corruption case, the Fast and Furious controversy, all of the border issues and border cases that they've pursued, it's been pretty amazing - like nothing I've ever seen."

Woods said Burke has "done an excellent job, and I think he probably welcomes the chance to take a breather."

Former Arizona Sen. Dennis DeConcini said that if the resignation is tied to Fast and Furious, it would be a misguided effort to lay blame on Burke. "If his resignation is tied to Fast and Furious, it's ridiculous. It would be absolutely outrageous for 'Justice Main' to take it out on Dennis and make him the fall guy," DeConcini said. "It's just typical Washington cronyism. It just shows you how incompetent government can be to save themselves. It appears they screwed up, based on congressional hearings."

Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have pressed the ATF for months to disclose details of Operation Fast and Furious and to justify a policy that allowed weapons into Mexico.

Last month, William McMahon, who has since been reassigned as head of the ATF's Western region, testified that the agency had good intentions when it launched Operation Fast and Furious in 2009. But there are things the ATF would have done differently, he said.

Appearing before the House Oversight Committee, McMahon said that he was committed to dismantling criminal networks on both sides of the border and that "in our zeal to do so, and in the heat of battle, mistakes were made. And for that I apologize."

Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement Tuesday that the personnel shake-ups are "small steps."

"I must not rest until the American people are informed about who authorized the program, who allowed it to continue despite grave misgivings on the part of dedicated ATF agents," Gosar said, adding that he also wants to know "who is responsible for the lack of transparency."